


We're Not Dating, Please Stop Asking

by callalily_flower



Series: This Found Family Keeps Getting Bigger, Stop Bringing in More Kids [3]
Category: Day6 (Band), GOT7, TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, JYP ensemble - Freeform, M/M, Pining, idk they just aren't the focus, if i ever start taking too long to update pls yell at me in comments bc time isn't real, jjp are dumb and in love and everyone tells them so, jjp is the focus but 2yeon and youngwoon are still here and relevant, these characters are probably gonna be the staples of this until i get to stray kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24628849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callalily_flower/pseuds/callalily_flower
Summary: Jaebeom and Jinyoung have supposedly been pining for 4 years. Both are adamant they are just friends but even Jaebeom's mother sees it. Now it's just up to them to swallow their pride and admit maybe their friends are right.
Relationships: Im Jaebum | JB/Park Jinyoung, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: This Found Family Keeps Getting Bigger, Stop Bringing in More Kids [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590049
Comments: 4
Kudos: 85





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the long awaited jjp fic is finally here!
> 
> i've kind of been suffering writer's block and i have this part and like one scene near the end and the end goal plotted out but everything else is not planned and who knows what's gonna happen, certainly not me. i'm trying out chaptered fics because i've come to realize this might never get published if i wait until it's finished
> 
> you'll notice i changed the spelling of jaebum to jaebeom. he spelled it on an ig live and eventually i'll get around to changing my other fics
> 
> i don't actually know how ao3 notifies but i'll end up rereading posted fics and noticing errors so if there's a notification for a finished fic and it doesn't look like something changed, it probably didn't other than minor grammar edits (like i reread From Heaven to Soul and forgot a word that's kind of important but didn't change anything without it considering i've reread it at least 3 times prior to the most recent reread)
> 
> EDIT 9/18/20 IMPORTANT  
> so i'm super fucking busy and i haven't found the time to fix it but i _will_ be changing woojin to an oc that i have now named juwon. i was going to straight up write him out but then realized there were important scenes he was in and i didn't want to have to rewrite the scenes. believe and support the victims during this time and always.

“How is Jinyoung doing?” his mother asks as they work together in her garden. Jaebeom wasn’t much for gardening but his mother’s back wasn’t as good as it used to be and if it meant helping her, he would suck it up for the day.

“He’s been busy,” Jaebeom grunts as he pulls a particularly deep-rooted weed. “He works at a flower shop owned by one of our friends. It’s right next door to where I work.”

His mother wasn’t thrilled when he said he wanted to work as a piercer, she was hoping for a doctor or lawyer. Nayeon saying she wanted to be a fashion designer had a similar effect, but she gave nothing but support to her children. Their father passed away in a car crash when Jaebeom was 7 so it had only been the three of them for a while.

The first piercings he ever got were one in each lobe when he was 15 and he did them himself in the bathroom mirror. When his mother saw him, she looked like she was going to faint. That was her first clue that he was serious about his dream. After that, she made sure he went to a professional for all his piercings.

He got his eyebrow and lip pierced within the first month of being an apprentice. He visited home for Chuseok and his mother was shocked, but a smile overtook her face and she began fretting over him and asking if he was eating enough.

The neighbors weren’t quite as nice but if his mother could ignore them, so could Jaebeom.

“He’s such a lovely boy,” she muses, arranging the plants how she wants them in the ground as well as in the planter she has outside the kitchen window. “You’ll have to take me to that shop sometime. I’d like to meet this friend,” The planting area is entirely weeded, and his mother stands up, “Let’s take a little break.”

Jaebeom rolls back to sit on his heels. His mother goes inside to fetch drinks for them. “Is there where you want everything, Mom?” he calls out. He faintly hears her confirmation and starts digging for the first plant.

Jaebeom and Nayeon make a point to visit their mother as much as they can. It just so happens that exams fall right during planting for the garden so the past several years he had helped plant with his mother. He seems to be getting faster as the years go by, “Yah!” his mother calls when she walks back out, “Stop that and come take a break!”

“Yes, mother,” he swiftly takes his feet, admiring the three plants he had gotten planted. She is sitting in one of her patio chairs and pats the one next to her for Jaebeom to sit with her.

After handing a glass of water to him, she simply watches him, smiling softly, “You look so much like your father. So handsome,” No matter how many piercings or tattoos he got, she still looked at him with such a loving look. Knowing that Yugyeom’s parents disowned him for his career choice made him appreciate his mother all that much more.

“So, tell me more about your shop,” she prompts. It had been nearly six months since they opened, but this was the first time he had been able to get away.

“Well, Brian-hyung was an apprentice at the same time as me and we co-own the place together. Most of the shop owners on the street are all pretty young. Brian and I each have apprentices of our own, Bambam and Yugyeom,” his mother looks at him curiously, “They’re good kids even though Bambam can be pretty stubborn. And then we have Dowoon as our counter person. He is the friendly face at the front.”

His mother is nodding, “What do their parents think of their career choice?”

Jaebeom knew this would come, she always wanted to know what other’s thought of the tattoo and piercer occupation. “I think Brian-hyung’s family is in Canada and pretty comfortable with it as far as I know. Bambam hasn’t ever mentioned anything so I don’t know if they just don’t know or if they don’t mind it.”

“And Yugyeom?” she asks softly, likely already knowing what his answer would be.

“His parents don’t talk to him,” Jaebeom says quietly, “I think they might have disowned him. He only mentioned it once and we never brought it up again.”

His mother pats his face, “You make sure to bring him with you some time. He sounds like he could use a mother’s love.”

A smile slides across his face as he stands up, “I’ll do that. Now we better get these planted before a storm rolls in,” The sky was darkening above them. Jaebeom’s mother plants the ones she wants in the planter while he continues working his way through the rest in the ground. Just as they finish, the sky opens up and starts pouring down on them.

They laugh as they gather up the tools, dropping them in the shed and running into the house.

“Looks like we don’t have to water them now,” Jaebeom chuckles.

She ignores his joke, “You have a few clothes here. Go get cleaned up and changed.”

After he changes and returns to the kitchen to find his mother packing up food for him to take back with him. “Are you kicking me out?”

She smiles good-naturedly at him, “No but it’s a long trip back and I don’t want it to be too late when you get back.”

He thanks her and gathers up the food. “I’ll be sure to share with Nayeon and I’ll let you know when I get back,” He kisses the top of her head as he steps into his shoes and heads out for the train station.

The next day he heads into work to find Dowoon and Brian making eyes at each other, “Just because you two finally realized your undying affection for each other doesn’t mean we want to see it all the time.”

“How was your day off yesterday, hyung?” Dowoon redirects his attention.

Jaebeom approaches the counter and sets his stuff down, “It involved 20 questions with my mother between helping in her garden.”

Nayeon walked in at that point, “You went home yesterday?”

Jaebeom grabs one of the bags by his feet, “Yeah, it’s planting season. Here’s your share of the food she sent with me.”

Nayeon thanks him but has to run to class shortly after. The rest of the morning is pretty quiet and it’s only in the early afternoon when things get weird.

Jaebeom had been in his work room with Bambam, quizzing him on procedures when Yugyeom knocks and opens the door slightly, “Uh, hyung, someone is here to see you.”

He pulls himself up and claps Yugyeom on the back. The woman turns around and he stops, “Mom?”

“I wanted to surprise you and come see where you worked,” she smiles as him. “All these boys are so wonderful, you really all must come visit.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Im,” Brian responds first, echoed by the other three.

“And you said Jinyoung worked at the flower shop next door?” she asked, already moving towards the door.

“Ah, yeah,” he stumbles to follow her, “I’ll be back,” he calls over his shoulder.

Jaebeom’s mother has already made it through the door of Sprout of Heaven. Once he gets inside as well, he finds that his mother is already at the counter talking to Wonpil.

“I don’t know why you came with me,” she says, looking at all the flowers, “I am perfectly capable of seeing Jinyoung here alone.”

Jinyoung emerges from the back room, “I thought I heard you, Mrs. Im,” he smiles.

“Ah, Jinyoung,” she reaches for his hands, “When will you come visit me? I only have this one to help in my garden and he doesn’t have any clue what to do.”

Jinyoung laughs, “I'm not sure when.”

Jaebeom’s mother looks down at Jinyoung’s hands, “Ah, my Jaebeommie still hasn’t proposed then, has he?”

Wonpil has to stop himself from bursting into laughter as Jaebeom and Jinyoung both flush red.

“Ah, we aren’t dating.”

“Mom, I’ve told you we’re just friends.”

“Nayeon brought her girlfriend with her last week when she came to visit. Lovely girl, that Jeongyeon,” Mrs. Im continues, ignoring her son and Jinyoung’s protests. “I guess I’m just destined not to have biological grandchildren.”

“Mom, would you like to visit the café across the street? I can introduce you to Jimin and Jackson.”

Jaebeom manages to get his mother out of the little flower shop and they are about to cross the street when Taecyeon and Nichkhun’s bookstore catches her eye. She pulls away from Jaebeom to look inside. He groans but follows her in.

Nichkhun is helping another customer but Taecyeon stops where he is restocking a shelf to help Mrs. Im, “How can I help you today, ma’am?”

Before Jaebeom can do anything, his mother launches into some tangent with Taecyeon. Nichkhun finishes with the customer and approaches Jaebeom, “Your mom?” Jaebeom nods with a sigh, “I remember when Taec’s mom first visited. She insisted on visiting every store on the block,” Nichkhun chuckles, “That’s actually when Taecyeon and Minjun met.”

“His mom still loves me,” Minjun says from between the two, having appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

“I’ve told you to stop doing that,” Nichkhun grumbles.

Jaebeom sighs once more, “I suppose I should save hyung?”

The three direct their attention back towards Mrs. Im and Taecyeon. “He seems to be enjoying whatever they are talking about,” Nichkhun says.

“Does hyung like gardening?”

“He keeps talking about wanting to start a little one on our balcony,” Minjun muses. “I take it that is your mother’s passion?”

Taecyeon finally notices Minjun standing with Nichkhun and Jaebeom and his face lights up. Jaebeom takes that as an opening to get his mom out of the bookstore.

“You boys take care!” she calls back as they leave.

Jaebeom hears Nichkhun laughing while Minjun refreshes Taecyeon’s memory when the man’s own mother visited for the first time.

They step into the café, which is nearly empty. Less than two steps in Jaebeom sees that Jimin is working, but Jackson must be on a different shift, Momo is busying herself by wiping down tables.

Jaebeom quickly introduces his mother and manages to get her back to YoungSoul without talking Jimin’s ear off.

Jaebeom immediately feels like something is off when he walks into YoungSoul with his mother. He shoots a look at Dowoon who points at his work room. The door is closed and Bambam is nowhere to be seen. He notices Yugyeom working on sketches, but Brian’s work room door is open and as far as Jaebeom can tell, the room is empty. Dowoon strikes up conversation with Mrs. Im as Jaebeom approaches Yugyeom.

“Someone walked in wanting their nose pierced. I think Bam is doing it but Brian-hyung is supervising,” Yugyeom explains without looking up.

Jaebeom’s work room door opens and a young man emerges followed by Brian. Upon seeing Jaebeom, Brian shoots him a thumbs-up. Jaebeom reaches his work room just as Bambam is about to leave.

“Brian-hyung supervised. I talked it through like always and everything went perfect.”

With a grin, Jaebeom ruffles Bambam’s hair. He notices Bambam looking over his shoulder and turns to see what he was looking at. Mrs. Im has sat on the couch next to Yugyeom, asking about his sketches. The boy looks almost afraid of her feedback.

She points to a few different places and says something with a smile. The boy next to her looks about ready to cry while Jaebeom feels Bambam tense up next to him. He sticks his arm out to stop the boy, “Wait.”

The next second has Mrs. Im enveloping Yugyeom in a hug, as tears start running more freely down his face. Jaebeom lowers his arm and Bambam rushes over to join his boyfriend. Mrs. Im ruffles both boy’s hair and approaches Jaebeom, “You bring that boy home with you some time,” she tells her son.

“Yes, mother, I will,” he checks the time, “It’s getting late, I’ll walk you to the train station.”

“But Nayeon and Jeongyeon haven’t visited yet,” his mother starts to protest.

The bell above the door jingles and nothing could have been timed quite so perfectly. Nayeon and Jeongyeon are laughing and holding hands as they walk in. When they look around to greet everyone, their greeting gets cut short, “Mom!” they both say in unison as they give her a hug.

“You girls doing well on your exams?”

The two girls talk about the exams they’ve taken and whether they think they did well or not. Jaebeom takes this chance to escape to the register where Brian and Dowoon are standing.

“Your mom knew they were dating?” Brian asked.

“They visited her last week,” Jaebeom sighs.

“How was visiting Jinyoung?” Dowoon smirks like he knows something Jaebeom doesn’t.

“I swear if Wonpil shared that–”

“He most definitely did.”

Jaebeom groans, “We’ve told her that we’re just friends for years now.”

“Well maybe you should stop disappointing your mother and date already,” Brian says.

“If I knew you wouldn’t kill me I would vault this counter right now,” Jaebeom threatens.

“Damn right I’d kill you. This was an expensive counter I’m not having you break it.”

The conversation from the girls has died down so Jaebeom approaches his mother again, “Mom, we should really head to the station. It’s going to be late as it is when you get back.”

His mother concedes, “I guess,” But just as they are leaving she stops and looks back inside, “I want all you boys to come visit me, no excuses.”

It isn’t until she gets confirmation from everyone that she continues out the door. Jaebeom walks her to the train station and waits with her until the train arrives.

She pulls him closer to her level and kisses his cheek, “I want all you boys to visit and I mean that.”

“We will mom.”

“And you and Jinyoung need to wizen up,” she ignores her son’s reddening face, “You two should have been dating for the past two years,” She pats his cheek and smiles, climbing onto her train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my wip title for this is "mama im ships jjp" so that's where this started
> 
> also idk who reads tags but i'm gonna reiterate, please yell at me in comments (or [tumblr](bummie-bammie.tumblr.com/ask)) if it's been a while between updates. i'm aiming for every two weeks at the _latest_  
>  also pls like let me know if you hate it bc i've stared at if for too way long so i don't know if i hate it or if i just am tired of looking at the same words


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who knew that all it would take to break my writer's block was to post this as chaptered instead of as a one shot? last chapter said two weeks between updates at most but there is a distinct possibility everything will be posted within two weeks
> 
> i'm pretty sure this is going to be 5 chapters total and i've actually got a lot of the rest of the fic written which actually surprises me how much i've written in the past day
> 
> a few notes about the story in general:  
> -i realized that mama im probably wouldn't actually _be_ mama im because korean women don't take their husband's name but i'm already committed so whoops  
> -i wrote "From Heaven to Soul" and the first chapter of this like 2-2.5 years ago so in my opinion, my writing style has changed significantly/there are definitely parts of it i would write differently now. so this is the first chapter of recently written stuff if it seems vastly different that's why  
> -i don't know how tattoo/piercing apprenticeships work AT ALL so there's a lot of guesswork going on, i vaguely looked into it but only skimmed it  
> -i'm taking _**a lot**_ of liberties with tattoo/piercing certifications in korea and i just kinda took the vague amount i knew about how it's done in the states and just used that instead because you have to have like a medical degree or something to do this in korea and i just want to write boys in love

Jaebeom stares after her train for a few moments before returning to YoungSoul. Everyone’s attention turns to him when he enters.

“I like your mom,” Wonpil must have left Jinyoung on his own for a bit.

“Of course, you do,” Jaebeom sighs as Wonpil retells the events when Mrs. Im was in Sprout of Heaven.

“She’s right you know,” Wonpil says as everyone is laughing.

“Don’t you need to get back to work?”

“Jinyoung said I was being intolerable,” Wonpil tells him smugly.

“You are,” Jaebeom says simply.

The laughter continues until the bell above the door rings with the entrance of a customer. Dowoon shoos everyone away from his counter area and puts on his friendliest smile. Wonpil waves as he returns to his own store and Jaebeom sees Brian looking at his boyfriend returning the wave to his roommate.

Jaebeom pushes lightly on his shoulder, “Don’t be such a sap.”

Before Brian can respond, Dowoon is calling Jaebeom over. He looks to the customer, a familiar face by now. Jeongin came in, proudly brandishing his ID, on his birthday two months ago, adamant about getting the nose piercing he so wanted. He had come back several times, getting a few piercings in each ear and hanging out with Bambam, asking all sorts of questions.

Brian hadn’t talked to him much, but he knew that Jaebeom had a soft spot the size of Seoul for the kid. He had gotten so lost in thought, he hadn’t noticed Jaebeom walking back over to him and grabbing his wrist.

“We need to talk,” he said, pulling Brian with him towards Brian’s work room. Looking back towards the counter, Brian only saw Dowoon, Jeongin nowhere in sight.

The door to his work room closes behind them and Jaebeom turns to Brian, “Jeongin wants to apprentice under me.” He says without preamble.

Brian blinks back confusion, “He what?”

“He wants to apprentice under me. He said he doesn’t want to do tattoos at all, only piercings but I’m still…” he trails off.

“Unsure because we’ve only been open four months and you already have Bambam?” Brian finishes for him.

“Yeah.”

Brian leans back against the counter behind him with a heavy sigh, “I don’t know man,” he answers after a long silence, “I really don’t. If you want to, then great, let him know and it’ll be great to have another set of hands in here to do piercings. Especially since the number of tattoos have kicked up and you’re doing a lot of them now too.” Brian glances at the door, “But if not that’s fine too. You should talk to Bam about it before you make your final decision, he loves the kid but he’s going to give you his honest thoughts on it if you ask.”

Jaebeom hesitates before asking his next question, “But you’re okay with it?”

Brian chuckles lightly, closing his eyes for a moment when he realizes why Jaebeom was hesitating with his decision. “Dude, we co-own the place. You can make whatever decisions you want and I’m gonna be behind you on them.” he pauses contemplating, “Except vaulting the counter, that shit was expensive and I’m not risking you breaking it.”

Before either of them can respond, a knock sounds on the door before Dowoon opens it. “You’ve both got appointments that just got here,” he looks between the two, “Everything good?”

Both men nod as they leave the work room to greet their clients.

Several more appointments later and the day is coming to a close. Jaebeom had brought the idea of Jeongin wanting to be an apprentice up with Bambam and the boy had only enthusiasm for the idea.

“Once he gets some training under his belt we can split the piercings between the two of us rather than me taking on most of them. That’ll give me more time to work on tattoos.”

Jaebeom realizes that and hesitates, not really wanting to let Bambam tattoo anyone any time soon.

“I’m still gonna think about it,” Jaebeom says.

Bambam doesn’t seem surprised, just nods, and returns to the cleaning he was doing.

That night, when Jaebeom finally gets home, he thinks about what his mother said, both in Sprout of Heaven and right before she got on the train.

He hadn’t really ever come out to her. At least not like Nayeon did, a whole speech and packed bag, ready to leave if their mother rejected her. His own hadn’t felt necessary like Nayeon said hers had. He just one day mentioned he had a boyfriend and his mother nodded, asked to meet him, then scolded him for not cleaning his room.

That first boyfriend met his mother once (she didn’t like him) and it ended up not working out. Several other boyfriends never made it to meeting his mother, not that he told her about them, leaving that until he was ready for them to meet and none of the later boyfriends made it the far.

Jaebeom introduced Jinyoung to his mom as a friend sometime after he broke up with his first boyfriend, knowing that Jinyoung liked gardening nearly as much as Jaebeom’s mother. They got along so well and made Jaebeom do all the heavy lifting for them in the garden. They hung out like friends always did, Nayeon tagging along occasionally. Sometimes doing their homework together.

It was after several months of this that Jaebeom’s mother dropped the bomb on him, “I like Jinyoung. Much better than your first boyfriend.”

“We aren’t dating, Mom. We’re just friends.”

His mother pauses at that, “I still like him better than that first boyfriend you had.”

“You and me both,” he mutters under his breath. Nayeon shoots him a questioning look but he ignores her, pretending he didn’t say what he did.

As he thinks back, his mother had always favored Jinyoung over any of his boyfriends. Jinyoung was the first person she would ask about when he came home and she always reminded Jaebeom to bring him next time and let him know to come visit her some time.

He texts Nayeon **How long has mom wanted Jinyoung as a son-in-law?**

He doesn’t have to wait long before Nayeon responds. **Since the first day you introduced him. Half of that was because he liked helping in her garden**

Jaebeom drops his phone and groans in disbelief of his obliviousness to his own mother’s intentions.

He lays in silence for a few moments before his phone ringing breaks the silence. He glances briefly at the caller ID before answering on speaker, “Yeah?”

Nayeon scoffs, “Did you really think you could get away with asking that, then not responding?”

“I was hopeful.”

“Yeah well,” she moves something around from her end of the call, “you were wrong. So what brought this on?”

“You mean you didn’t hear from Wonpil? I thought he told everyone at least twice.” Jaebeom is surprised but he remembers that the girls were gone by the time he got back from the train station. “When Mom and I went to visit Jinyoung in Sprout of Heaven, she grabbed his hands and observed that I ‘still hadn’t proposed’ like we’ve been dating even though we aren’t.”

“Oppa, you two have basically been dating and everyone but the two of you knew.”

“If you’re gonna call me out, I’m hanging up,” Jaebeom threatens.

Nayeon snorts, both of them knowing that was an empty threat, “I’m honest that Mom has loved Jinyoung more than the both of us since you introduced him. She thought you two were dating until you clarified that first time, after that she just wished you two were dating but didn’t say anything.” Nayeon starts laughing, “When Jeongyeon and I went home at the beginning of the month, the first thing I was asked after introducing Jeongyeon was whether or not you and Jinyoung were dating yet. She has been just as invested in you two getting together as the rest of us but much more subtle. At least until today she was.”

Jaebeom groans, “She didn’t say anything to me yesterday.”

“Of course she didn’t,” Nayeon tells him, “I told her you weren’t and she knows how useless asking you about it is. It makes sense that she would ask Jinyoung-oppa about it today, she doesn’t get to ask him very often so it’s not overdone with him yet. And that’s where I’m done being helpful so please let me clown you or hang up so I can spend time with my girlfriend.”

“You would think having a girlfriend would make you nicer but it doesn’t,” Jaebeom can see Nayeon sticking her tongue out at him like they’re still in elementary school, “Thanks for the roasting, I guess, and tell Jeongyeon I say hi and I want her back in for more piercings sometime soon.”

“I’m not sending my girlfriend to give you more business,” Nayeon pouts before saying her own farewell.

Jaebeom continued to lay on the floor, thinking over the events of the day. Eventually he drags himself up to make dinner and then go to bed.

The next day is the start of an unending stream of new appointments. Bambam is doing all the piercings since Jaebeom is in such high demand for his tattoos and he’s seen how to do all of them. Dowoon starts seriously thinking about how things will need to be rearranged for Bambam and Yugyeom to have their own work rooms.

With the sheer volume of piercings Bambam is doing, he accelerates the apprenticeship time for piercers and is nearly certified, and probably will be by the end of the month. More and more art goes up on the walls, displaying the different art styles of the current artists. Yugyeom gets more practice, his art style being one of the more popular ones.

“Where is all of this business coming from?” Jaebeom asks no one in particular once the last appointment has left and before the next comes in, “Where did all these college kids come from looking for tattoos and piercings?”

It’s an excellent question and everyone is wondering the same thing until Nayeon and Jeongyeon look up from their laptops where they are doing schoolwork next to Dowoon.

“You _did_ ask me to send Jeongyeon to get more piercings soon,” Nayeon says.

Jaebeom rolls his eyes, “Asking to see Jeongyeon more is not equal to whatever is going on with this crazy amount of business.”

“Okay well, I had a friend who wanted a new tattoo but it was something that was pretty controversial. I mentioned that you were a tattoo artist and she came by. Next time she saw me she said it was the best experience she had and she was planning to recommend YoungSoul to her friends.” Nayeon says. “Then I was at an LGBT club meeting and they were asking for inclusive businesses with LGBT owners, in anticipation of pride month, and again, I mentioned you guys, saying that every employee was a member of the LGBT community,” she shrugs, “I didn’t realize everyone was gonna come here en masse to get stuff done.”

“No wonder so many of these have been LGBT themed,” Bambam mutters to Yugyeom.

Jeongyeon chimes in next, “One of my sisters was looking to get a conch piercing but she didn’t know where to go since she got her other stuff done back home in Suwon and she didn’t have time to go home so I recommended here. I wouldn’t be surprised if she mentioned it to her coworkers, most of whom are just past college aged.”

"That doesn't even touch on the students who work at the cafe and Hyelim's tutoring studio," Dowoon mutters, "I'm sure they've told their classmates about us, too."

“Oh, also,” Nayeon adds, “one of my classes was to create an ad for a business so I chose you guys. The ads were shown in class and I forgot that I was technically supposed to ask for permission from the business, but I figured it was fine since you’re my brother.”

“That was a really good ad,” Jeongyeon mentions, “You should show them.”

“You’re a fashion design major,” Dowoon asks, “Why were you required to do that in one of your classes?”

“I needed an elective and it was marketing, so I knew I could ask Jeongyeon for help if I needed. Plus there was some graphic design included and I knew I could ace that part,” she explains as she clicks through various files on her computer, “Here it is.”

Turning her screen, Nayeon shows the shop the ad. Dowoon admits it’s a great ad. Brian must think so too, because he leans over and whispers something to Jaebeom. Jaebeom nods shortly as Brian turns back.

“Jaebeom and I are willing to pay you for that in the form of a single piercing or tattoo at no charge.”

Nayeon’s eyes widen. She had tried nearly every way possible to get a free piece done but only succeeded once when she and Jeongyeon got together. The fact that they valued her ad so much was put into perspective when they were willing to do something free in exchange.

“Really?” she asks.

Her brother and Brian look at her like she had grown a second head, “Nayeon this is really good art. I don’t know if you realize how expensive advertising is,” Jaebeom is saying, “Like if we tried to hire this done it would cast several hundred thousand won.”

“Is now a weird time for me to mention that I have an associate degree in architecture?” Dowoon pipes up, “because I do but I never use it because I realized I hated it right before I graduated.” Everyone looks at him wide eyed, “I don’t think I’ll mind using it to help get Yugyeom and Bambam their own work rooms because they definitely need them.”

Before anyone can say anything in response, the next appointment comes in and work starts up again.

One of the perks of being so busy is it gives Jaebeom no time to think about anything besides work throughout the day and he was too tired in the evenings to think very much about what his mom had said about his relationship with Jinyoung.

But things had to slow down eventually and that happened when finals came around and all the students were shutting themselves in the library or their own rooms to study but they all anticipated another rush as soon as finals were over.

The lack of work gave Jaebeom more time to think, and he did a lot of thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these were the scenes i had the most trouble with and i'm still not entirely sure about them but i have to remind myself that this is because it's my writing and that's why i don't like it
> 
> i like comments and kudos and regularly check for them ~~for validation~~ to see if there's any i haven't responded to
> 
> lots of love and the rest of this could very well be posted within the next week but i don't guarantee anything


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so when i posted chapter 2 yesterday i had half of this chapter and half of the next chapter left to write and the last chapter was finished. i thought posting each chapter on separate days but nah i gotta have the gratification of being able to put 'FINISHED' in my doc name
> 
> anyway so here's the first of three updates today!

Jaebeom had let himself into Brian’s apartment. He knew Brian and Dowoon were on a date, but he couldn’t stew in his thoughts in his own apartment. Especially after Nayeon texted him, calling him out on his bullshit once again. Jinyoung was out of the question, Jae wouldn’t be helpful, only teasing, and Sungjin is having his own emotional crisis.

Who knows how long Jaebeom had been laying in the middle of the floor when the door clicks open.

“I swear I locked- Oh,” Brian is saying as he walks in.

Dowoon is right behind him, “What is it, hyu- Oh, hi Jaebeom-hyung.”

“I did not give you a key so you could mope on the floor while I’m out,” Brian nudges Dowoon out of the way to close the door. “What has you on the floor?”

Jaebeom throws his arm over his face, unsure if he wants to share.

“If you don’t tell me I’m kicking you out,” Brian threatens.

“I think I’m in love with Jinyoung,” Jaebeom mumbles from beneath his arm.

“What was that?”

Jaebeom removes his arm from his face to glare at Brian. A smirk is creeping across the man’s face, he knew exactly what Jaebeom was saying and just wanted to hear him say it again. “I think I’m in love with Jinyoung, hyung.”

“Congratulations, you’re the last to know.”

“Jinyoung knows?!”

“Pardon me, second to last to know,” Brian crouches next to Jaebeom. “Now would you like to talk about it?”

“I don’t wanna ruin our friendship,” Jaebeom mumbles.

Brian scoffs, “Dude, you’ve basically been dating without the overt affection for the past 2 years. If anything could ruin your friendship, this isn’t it.”

“If Bambam is to be believed,” Jaebeom scoffs at Dowoon’s statement, “yeah normally I wouldn’t but Nayeon backed him up on it. Anyway, he says that Jinyoung is just as blatantly in love with you and has been for so long. The only people who don’t see it are you and Jinyoung-hyung.”

“Didn’t he tell you he recognized pining when he sees it?” Brian asks.

“Yeah,” Dowoon shrugs, “must not when it’s directed at him though.” Dowoon pauses for a moment, “But is this really pining? Like they both are in love with each other and just haven’t acknowledged it so it’s more emotional avoidance.”

Brian stares at his boyfriend, “I love you, but we’re gonna call it pining because that’s simpler.”

Dowoon walks back and forth through the apartment, doing something, but Jaebeom isn’t sure what. Brian sits on the couch near where Jaebeom’s feet lay, watching him go through his crisis.

After a few minutes, Brian nudges Jaebeom’s foot with his own, “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really,” Jaebeom mutters, arms thrown over his face.

Dowoon snorts, “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that doesn’t really matter and you should talk about it.”

Brian shrugs when Jaebeom shoots him a glare, “He’s not wrong.”

Jaebeom lays silent for a little longer before he finally breaks the silence, “Nayeon texted me mentioning how much I’m always touching Jinyoung when we’re together. Just casually, but she also mentioned that if she hadn’t told Jeongyeon otherwise, the girl thought we were dating.”

The couple look at each other, desensitized to the amount of touching after seeing it all day.

“But her text got me thinking,” Jaebeom says, “and I think I’ve been in love with Jinyoung for years now.”

“It’s been at least a three years,” Brian says, “because you’ve been in love with him as long as I’ve known you.”

Jaebeom rubs his face, not sure how he’s supposed to respond to that. Dowoon makes it so he doesn’t have to, asking a new question.

“Hey. So that day when we were all suffering because we were hungover,” he prompts. Jaebeom frowns, racking his brain until he gets a vague memory of the day, “Jinyoung-hyung said you two were ‘talking’ when I asked what was going on between you guys when he checked up on you. What was that about?”

Jaebeom frowns, stretching his memory for the day. All his memories of that day were fuzzy except for the one that included his pounding headache and awful hangover. Finally Jaebeom shrugs, “That’s a question for Jinyoung. All I remember of that day is a godawful hangover.” Dowoon’s brow furrows but he nods.

Silence descends over the three of them for a few minutes until Brian breaks it, “What are you gonna do?”

Jaebeom snorts, “Um, nothing?” he looks up at his business partner, being met with a look a displeasure, “What if I tell him and it ruins our friendship?”

“Hyung,” Dowoon says, “that would only be possible if he didn’t feel the same about you. Which is not the case at all.”

Brian nods, “All of us have seen the way you two look at each other. Especially when the other isn’t looking.”

Jaebeom is ready to protest when Brian holds up a hand, “How about this? All the casual affection when Jinyoung visits YoungSoul. The arm on his shoulder. Back hug with your chin on his shoulder.”

“It’s just casual affection like you said,” Jaebeom answers, “between friends.”

“You don’t do that with me, hyung,” Dowoon chimes in, “or Bambam or Yugyeom or Brian-hyung.”

“That’s becau-,” he cuts himself off, realizing what he was about to answer.

“Because?” Brian prompts, knowing exactly what Jaebeom’s answer was going to be.

“Because you all have significant others,” he mutters.

“Which shouldn’t matter because it’s just casual affection between friends,” Brian isn’t letting this go and Jaebeom should have expected this.

“I don’t like when you tag team like this,” he mumbles with a pout. Knowing Brian was going to prompt him again, he continues, “But it’s not casual affection between friends. It’s my crush on Jinyoung manifesting itself because it’s too much to just keep in. Thanks, I get it. I’ve been avoiding my feelings and lying to myself for too long.”

“I mean,” Brian shrugs, “you’re the one who said it.”

“But all that casual affection is from me. That doesn’t say shit about whether Jinyoung likes me back,” Jaebeom protests.

“Are you here for help or are you here to refute all help we try to give you?” Brian groans.

“Hyung, he leans into the affection,” Dowoon answers, “If he didn’t like you he would lean away and ask you to stop. I’ve seen him straight arm block Bambam from hugging him and walk away while Yugyeom was leaning on him, if he didn’t want the affection from you, he wouldn’t get it.”

“Okay,” Jaebeom acknowledges, but crushes any optimism Brian and Dowoon might have had with his next words, “but he could just think it’s casual affection between friends. Just because you got me to admit that’s not what it was from my perspective, doesn’t mean that’s not what he thinks it is.”

Dowoon groans, “That’s it Brian-hyung. I give up, I’m gonna go home to Wonpil-hyung and listen to his love woes with Juwon. At least there I know all of my advice will be ignored.”

Brian chuckles, leaning up for a kiss from his boyfriend before he leaves. Once the door closes, Brian turns on his business partner, “What drives you to cherry pick our advice? Dowoon is one of the biggest advocates for open communication in relationships and he may have taken some time to actually tell _me_ his feelings, he never denied them to himself. He was worried about whether or not I returned his feelings, and he had a reason to doubt and worry because the time that we have known each other and our friends have known each other is much shorter than how long you’ve known Jinyoung. You have all of your friends, that have known both of you for years, telling you that he returns your feelings. We care about both of you and we don’t want you to suffer. We wouldn’t urge you to take an action that would hurt you or Jinyoung.”

Jaebeom spends several minutes thinking over what Brian said, “I think,” he starts slowly, “it’s _because_ we’ve known each other for so long. It feels like I could lose so much if this goes wrong.”

Brian nods slowly, “That makes sense, but your sister, who has known Jinyoung for seven years, says both of you have feelings for each other. She’s good friends with Jinyoung and she’s close to you as siblings, if she were to lie and you followed through only for it to blow up, she would be just as hurt, losing yours and Jinyoung’s trust as well as likely Jinyoung’s friendship. She wouldn’t nudge you towards emotional destruction that would result from her lying about this.”

Jaebeom sits up from the floor to lean against the couch, “Sorry for cutting your date short,” he mutters.

Brian sighs, “Repay me by actually talking to Jinyoung about your feelings. But it’s fine, we’ve been going out a lot more recently because Dowoon is trying to avoid Wonpil at home.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Jaebeom has been busy either with YoungSoul or thinking about his feelings for Jinyoung that he hadn’t noticed much of what was going on with their friends outside of the YoungSoul staff and Nayeon.

“I’m not quite sure,” Brian shrugs, “Dowoon thinks it might have to do with Sungjin but I haven’t seen him in a while so I can’t say for sure. He and Juwon have been trying to spend as little time in the apartment because Wonpil likes to complain but not take any advice they have, despite Dowoon’s experience. Juwon even tried asking what Wonpil would tell him if Juwon was the one with these problems but when he did and Juwon suggested he follow his own advice, Wonpil said it was bad advice,” Brian chuckles, “I’m a little surprised he would take Wonpil ignoring all advice over you cherry picking from the advice.”

Jaebeom finally stands up, “Okay you’ve circled back to bullying me so I’m out.”

“It’s what you deserve!” Brian calls after Jaebeom as he leaves the man’s apartment, waving over his shoulder.

Finals week ends and everything picks up again with barely time for breathing. Brian and Dowoon kept giving him looks to get a move on and actually talk to Jinyoung, but Jaebeom ignored them every time. He would get to talking to him when he was ready. Plus he couldn’t exactly leave when they were so busy all the time.

So he thought about how he would talk to the man but it never actually happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so the part where jaebeom says he doesn't remember, that's definitely a plot hole from when i wrote From Heaven to Soul that i told myself i could fill in later. yeah later is here and i'm staring at it like "hmm that's nice, hate past me for doing that"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter happens pretty much concurrently with chapter 3

Jinyoung sighs, Wonpil is out for the day, taking a much-needed day off so it’s just Jinyoung in Sprout of Heaven. Business had been steady all day but he knew that YoungSoul was busy, Jaebeom and Brian having full booked days. That’s why his fallback was texting Nayeon if she could bring him lunch since he can’t leave.

Nayeon walks in, brandishing a bag and pulling Jeongyeon along with her. “Oppa! Your savior is here with lunch!”

Jinyoung rolls his eyes at Nayeon’s antics, noticing Jeongyeon is doing the same but ending with a fond look at her girlfriend. He pulls the spare stools out of the back room, knowing Nayeon was likely to stay for a while since she can’t go to bother her brother.

Jinyoung thanks Nayeon for the favor before falling silent. He had been doing a lot of thinking over the last two weeks since Mrs. Im came for a visit. He ponders bringing it up to Nayeon, quickly quashing that idea when he realizes that she would tease him endlessly.

“Just spit it out, oppa,” Nayeon says, cocking her head to the side while both girls are looking at Jinyoung. “I know there’s something on your mind, just say it.”

“Have Jaebeom and I really been dating while not dating for the past four years?”

That obviously wasn’t what Nayeon was expecting. Jeongyeon blinks a few times, having noticed how Jaebeom and Jinyoung act with each other for the past two months she and Nayeon had been dating. “Oppa,” she says seriously, “if I hadn’t been told by Nayeon-unnie that you two weren’t dating, I would have assumed that you were.”

Nayeon gestures towards her girlfriend, “There’s your answer. The amount of casual affection between the two of you has slowly increased to where it is today, but you both have such lovestruck expressions when you look at each other.”

Jinyoung thinks about all the times he and Jaebeom have held hands to get through a crowd and simply not let go afterwards. Jaebeom throwing an arm over his shoulder when they are out with other friends or even when Jinyoung visits YoungSoul. The way Jaebeom leans on Jinyoung’s back, chin hooked on his shoulder and arms around his waist. Jinyoung leaning into Jaebeom’s touch.

“Oh my god,” he breathes, letting his head fall forward, “How have we both been so oblivious?”

Nayeon opens her mouth, probably to say something mean, but Jeongyeon cuts her off with an elbow into her side. “Everything changed slowly. You don’t boil a frog by throwing it in boiling water.”

Nayeon scoffs, “The analogy is good except that is about perceiving danger. Oppa’s situation is not dangerous.”

“It cou-,” he starts only for Nayeon to cut him off.

“No,” she glares at him, “It’s not dangerous. Jaebeom-oppa loves you just as much as you love him. He has since high school.”

Jinyoung decides to ignore the last part, “What if it changes our friendship?”

“It will,” Jeongyeon says, “because you’ll be in a relationship so it’s just one more level of intimacy.”

Nayeon nods, “Friendship with kisses.”

“Okay but what if it changes our friendship for the worse?”

Nayeon groans, “I can’t believe you’re both so dumb.”

“Hey, I’m still older than you,” Jinyoung fires back, not really offended by her lack of respect since he’s pretty sure he might deserve it.

Jeongyeon is much more tactful, “Okay how about this? Everyone around you can see how in love with each other you both are. Do you think all of your friends would really encourage you to actually talk out your feelings with each other if they thought it would hurt you? Would unnie lead her own brother straight into emotional destruction?”

Jinyoung slowly shakes his head, “No, they wouldn’t.”

“So if we’re all telling you to confess, that must mean we all think your relationship will change for the better, right?”

Jinyoung nods slowly.

Jeongyeon stands, pulling Nayeon with her, “We’ll leave you to think. Plus I have another class later this afternoon to get to and I know Nayeon-unnie has a project to work on.”

Jinyoung waves as they leave, lost in thought in what he should do about his recently discovered feelings. A customer walks in, breaking him from his thoughts, and he doesn’t get back to them for the rest of the day.

When he gets home that evening, he tries not to think about his conversation with Nayeon and Jeongyeon and only partially succeeds.

The next day, as Wonpil is flipping the sign from ‘CLOSED’ to ‘OPEN’ Jinyoung breaks their comfortable silence.

“Wonpil,” his technically boss but mostly friend looks up, “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with Jaebeom.”

Wonpil pauses, surprised, “Wow, I should have more emotional crises with Juwon if this is what happens while I’m gone.”

“Please don’t,” Jinyoung grimaces, “We’ve already had enough of those.”

As they’re going through their opening duties and starting on arrangements for the day, Wonpil makes a few comments, talking a little about his own day yesterday.

“What are you going to do about Jaebeom?” he asks.

Jinyoung nearly snips the entire bud off instead of just a rogue leaf, “Pil,” Jinyoung groans, “you can’t just ask me that.”

“Oh, so you don’t know.” Wonpil nods and returns to his work, the low music coming from the speaker the only sound in the shop.

By the end of the day, Jinyoung has almost forgotten what he told Wonpil that morning. Until Wonpil brings it up again, “I’m serious about that question this morning. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Jinyoung mutters, “Nayeon and Jeongyeon tried to convince me that he feels the same and that they wouldn’t try to purposely send me or Jaebeom into a situation that would hurt either of us. I still just don’t know. Plus we’ve been such good friends for so long,” he takes a breath, “I don’t see why we have to change anything.”

Wonpil takes a moment to think, “I see your point. If that’s what you want to do, I understand,” Wonpil smiles at Jinyoung, “but Brian, Bambam, and Yugyeom have been trying to convince Jaebeom of the same thing. Dowoon too probably but he doesn’t tell me anything because he knows we work together and I don’t have the best filter. Anyway, point being, you can avoid changing anything, but Jaebeom might not. You have to be ready if that comes to pass.”

Jinyoung, desperate for the attention to be off of him and his love life, ask Wonpil about his own relationship woes, “How was your emotional crisis, as you are calling it, with Juwon yesterday?”

Wonpil flusters, “Fine, I get why you don’t like having so much attention on your love life,” he mutters, “but it was enlightening. Juwon is tired of me ignoring all of his advice and it got him to leave the apartment by noon. I think he went to hang out with Chan, or he stopped by the salon to find Minho, I’m not sure which.”

“Okay but I asked about your emotional crisis, not Juwon’s relation to it.”

Wonpil groans, giving a synthesis of what he learned from yesterdays time to himself, “There. Happy?”

“For now,” Jinyoung says as he flips the sign and locks the door from the inside.

“Good because now we have to talk about what your next steps are,” Wonpil pats the stool next to him.

“I thought I was staying late to help with ordering supplies and counting inventory,” Jinyoung protests.

“And you are,” Wonpil grins broadly at him, “but we can multitask and talk about your love life as well.”

“You are the worst,” Jinyoung deadpans, “one of these days I’m going to quit.”

“You like it too much here to quit,” Wonpil waves off, “Here, we’ll start with ordering and I won’t ask until we take a break.”

Jinyoung doesn’t like the plan very much but he figures it’s the best he’s going to get and he watches as shows him where the inventory logs are stored in the computer.

“Some of these pads get ordered from specific places and I can never remember the item number,” Wonpil gestures to the cardstock for notes and the carbon copy order forms they use to record arrangement orders, “so I’ve got all of them written on this note taped to the counter,” he taps the list of numbers with a short description next to each, “and it’s in the inventory logs but I never remember what page so that’s why it’s taped to the counter.”

Wonpil shows Jinyoung all the things that needs to be manually reordered. “You already know the delivery of flowers is Monday mornings but Friday afternoon is usually when I get a call about what I need for the next week.” Jinyoung nods. “Roses, lilies, daisies, and carnations are the ones you have to check regularly, but baby’s breath and ferns are good to keep an eye on, just in case. Summer means more of the brighter colors, winter is the blues, purples, and whites.”

Jinyoung nods again, “Why are you teaching me all this now? Not that I’m opposed to learning it, I just, I’ve been here nearly six months and now is when you want me to learn all this?”

Wonpil nods, “I didn’t just have an emotional crisis all day yesterday. I was thinking and I know it’s nearly impossible to handle the store all day on your own. I’m thinking about hiring more help. At least one person, to run deliveries when we need them, but two would be ideal so we all wouldn’t have to work every day.”

“Did you ask Juwon?” Jinyoung smirks.

“I did,” Wonpil declares with a grin, “and I’ll have you know, I didn’t even finish the question before he was refusing. But he did say he would ask around, which probably means we’ll get like, Jisung? Changbin? I know Chan already works at a convenience store and Minho helps out with cleaning Junho’s salon sometimes and that is the extent of the people Juwon knows.”

Jinyoung laughs, “You really aren’t sugar coating it.” He pauses to think for a minute, “Brian knows the kids better than I do, but I know both of them are hard workers so it will be nice to have someone else here.”

Wonpil nods along with the second statement, “The first night Juwon met everyone he said he didn’t remember me having so many friends, this is just as nice as he usually is. But enough of that, let’s get back to ordering.”

There’s not a lot to learn and whatever is super important to remember is recorded in the ordering checklist Wonpil keeps under the register.

“Okay, have you thought about what you’re going to do next? With Jaebeom,” Wonpil asks at their next break.

Jinyoung pauses, “Not really. I’m still nervous about fucking up our relationship. You and Nayeon and Jeongyeon can try to reassure me that I won’t as much as you want but it won’t change the fact that the thought of that happening terrifies me.”

“Take as long as you need to act,” Wonpil reassures, “If I’ve learned anything about Jaebeom in the past six months, it’s that he takes a while to think before he acts.”

The two of them bounce ideas back and forth, when Jinyoung throws out, “What if I spend lunch with him a few times? I can build up to confessing and confirm my feelings for him and feel out what his could be.”

“That,” Wonpil’s brow furrows, “could work. That seems like a really good plan. You can ask Dowoon in the mornings what Jaebeom’s appointment schedule for the day looks like to make sure you two have enough time and that he won’t have to rush off to another appointment.”

Finally having a plan that satisfies Wonpil, they get back to handling the ordering. With the two of them working together, ordering goes faster than Wonpil is used to and they are soon saying their farewells and heading to their own apartments for the night.

Jinyoung tells himself to start the first step of his plan tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any and all repetitive conversation comes from me jumping between chapters and forgetting what i have in each chapter. my editing is limited to: (1) am i missing a word anywhere? and (2) are there any glaring errors?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be in the chapter but it's not referenced until like the end so this chapter takes place 2 weeks after chapters 3/4
> 
> also Red Color of the Sun chapter 2 takes place between the chapters

Jinyoung walks into YoungSoul with a purpose. Dowoon looks away from where Bambam and Yugyeom are have an intense rock-paper-scissors competition over who gets to leave early and meet Youngjae after he submits his last paper of his masters work this afternoon. Yugyeom had won but Bambam kept upping the count from best two out of three to best three out of five, all the way to the best seven out of thirteen they were sitting at now.

“Hey, hyung,” Dowoon greets, turning to the computer, “Jaebeom-hyung has an appointment now and one in twenty minutes, then one at 2 this afternoon but otherwise he’s free.” Jinyoung had come over to ask about Jaebeom’s appointments for the day for the past three days. When Dowoon brought it up to Wonpil, his roommate just shrugged.

Jinyoung nods, glancing at the apprentices, still at their rock-paper-scissors tournament. Yugyeom wins yet again and Bambam groans, “Best eight out of fifteen!”

Dowoon snorts and Jinyoung blinks slowly, not entirely sure he heard correctly. When three rounds pass, Yugyeom winning the last one and putting him at eight, and Bambam opens his mouth, “Best-“

“Bam,” Jinyoung calls out, “just let it go.”

Bambam pouts but relents. Both apprentices go back to their sketchbooks, not paying attention to the rest of the shop.

“I’ll be back in like an hour,” Jinyoung says, “I’m stealing Jaebeom for lunch.”

Dowoon frowns in confusion, “Okay, hyung.”

Jinyoung is out the door and Dowoon is left staring after him. It doesn’t take long for both Brian and Jaebeom’s work rooms to open. Jaebeom is gesturing the man towards Dowoon, motioning low to tell Dowoon what kind of piercing it was. Judging by the way he immediately goes to the bathroom, Dowoon guesses dick and not navel.

Confirming that he was correct, Dowoon rings the man out, stapling his receipt to the care sheet. Brian’s client walks up, Brian approaching on Dowoon’s side of the counter.

Brian squints to see the clock across the room before Dowoon grabs his chin to look at the computer, pointing to the time, “Alright that was two hours.” The woman across the counter winces as she sways on her feet.

“Miss,” Dowoon says quietly, “You can lean against the counter if you need to,” Brian opens his mouth to protest, but closes it without a word at a glare from Dowoon.

The woman doesn’t listen to Dowoon, taking deep breaths as her swaying seems to increase. Yugyeom is walking towards Brian’s work room, glancing at the register curiously. Dowoon raises his eyebrows, nodding slightly towards the woman, and Yugyeom changes his destination. Not a moment too soon, the woman’s eyes roll back as she passes out. Yugyeom lunges forward, catching her before her head can hit the counter or the floor.

Brian mutters a quiet “fuck,” before going around the end of the counter to help Yugyeom carry the woman to the couch as Bambam went to get a few juice boxes from the back of the shop.

Dowoon pulls out her signed form, checking for anything that might be important. All he notes is that it’s her first tattoo. Brian looks to Dowoon, who simply shakes his head. Brian nods in understanding and sits on the floor next to the woman, holding the juice boxes Bambam had brought back.

Bambam drops his and Yugyeom’s sketchbooks on the counter next to Dowoon before he goes to Jaebeom’s work room to set up for the appointment. Jaebeom walks out of the bathroom and stops short, “We’re full of excitement today.” He joins Bambam in his work room while Brian just softly shakes his head.

Jaebeom’s appointment walks in just as the woman was waking up, “Um,” he seems unsure.

“It was her first tattoo,” Dowoon explains, as Brian stabs a straw into one of the juice boxes for her. “You’re here for a piercing appointment, right?” At the man’s nod, Dowoon stands to stretch, “If you could fill this out,” he places the release form in front of the man with a pen, “I’ll be right back.”

Dowoon goes to notify Jaebeom and Bambam that the appointment was here. Just as he walked in the doorway, he is met with Bambam looking at Jaebeom in utter shock.

“Our next appointment here?” Jaebeom asks as Bambam recovers from whatever Jaebeom had told him. At Dowoon’s nod, Jaebeom gestures to Bambam to lead the way.

Dowoon ducks out of the door first to check the man’s paperwork. Skimming over the completed form Dowoon nods to Bambam and reaches to stick the paper in the daily file. Once Bambam has joined them, Dowoon steps away to join Brian and the woman at the couch.

“-times you have to take breaks and there’s no shame in that,” Brian is saying. He looks up to see Dowoon approaching and smiles, “Everything is fine.”

Dowoon smiles at the woman, “Hyung, did you tell her about your back piece?”

Brian groans, “I never should have told you about it,” he mutters before looking back at the woman, “I have a large tattoo on my back. Dowoon, can you trace the outline for me?” Brian asks as he turns slightly to show the woman his back.

Dowoon has spent many nights tracing over Brian’s tattoos with his eyes and fingers, so he doesn’t hesitate to outline the large piece on his back.

“It took six hours,” he explains, “and I had to take four breaks. The first was after two hours and each subsequent one was an hour apart. This was my fourth tattoo but I still needed the breaks.”

The woman looks relieved and Dowoon adds, “Don’t worry, you aren’t the first person to pass out and you won’t be the last. Most pass out in the chair but you aren’t the first to pass out at the register.”

“You said you have a friend coming to pick you up?” Brian asks.

She nods, “Yeah, she’s on her way now.”

Dowoon must have been at the couch longer than he thought because Jaebeom’s work room door is opening and the man is walking out. Bambam taps on his eyebrow and Dowoon nods.

Brian is discussing the next appointment the woman needs to finish her tattoo when Dowoon stands to return to the register. He rings the man out and thanks him before waving as he leaves. When he turns back to Jaebeom’s work room, he notices the door is closed again but brushes it off when Brian and the woman approach the counter. They get the next appointment set up and the woman’s friend walks in.

Brian and Dowoon wave as the women leave before Dowoon looks back at Jaebeom’s work room.

“Hey, Jinyoung,” Brian greets as the bell rings and Dowoon jolts back to attention.

“Hey,” he returns the greeting, “I’m early but I know Jaebeom should be free of clients and Wonpil told me to take lunch now while Sprout of Heaven is slow.”

Dowoon nods, “Yeah, they’re in his work room,” as he is talking, the door opens and Jaebeom and Bambam walk out.

Jaebeom greets Jinyoung before he is grabbed by the arm and dragged out. The rest of YoungSoul watches in confusion that is mirrored on Jaebeom’s face.

Dowoon sends a text to Wonpil, asking if he knows what’s up only to receive a cryptic smiley face as a reply.

Jinyoung and Jaebeom walk down the street to the street vendor they frequent on slower days in the stores and Jinyoung pays for Jaebeom’s before the man can protest. They chat aimlessly and Jinyoung realizes how much he is enjoying himself. Simultaneously, Jaebeom is suddenly struck with how much he likes Jinyoung.

Before either of them can say anything, Jinyoung gets a text from Wonpil asking him to come back so he can get lunch while the store is still slow.

“Dowoon said your next appointment isn’t until 2,” Jinyoung starts, “Did you want to come back to Sprout of Heaven to keep me company while Wonpil is gone?”

Jaebeom nods, reaching to hold Jinyoung’s hand to lead him through the thickening crowd. It was completely unnecessary and Jaebeom regretted it as soon as his hand was out but it was too late to pull back now and Jinyoung was reaching for his hand.

Jinyoung doesn’t drop his hand until he is pulling open the door for Sprout of Heaven, letting Jaebeom walk in first.

Wonpil has a thanks on the tip of his tongue, pulling off his apron before he looks up and sees Jaebeom. His eyes widen and he looks to Jinyoung, mouth parting to ask something.

“Go take lunch,” Jinyoung says, pulling Wonpil towards the door, “He’s here to keep me company so you don’t need to hurry back.”

Wonpil’s brow furrows as he walks away. Jinyoung pulls his own apron back on and the two sit in silence for a few minutes. Jinyoung could be pulling the dead stems from display or he could be organizing the arrangements they needed to get started on next. Instead he stares at his thumbs, building up the courage to say what he had been planning all morning.

He glances at the door, making sure there isn’t going to be a customer coming in soon, before taking a deep breath, “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you. Nayeon has informed me that I have been for the past four years but I can only say for myself that it’s been the past year.” Jinyoung avoids looking up from his thumbs as he continues, “I don’t want to pressure you into anything if you don’t feel the same but I couldn’t take another day of ignoring my feelings to preserve our friendship. I knew if I tried to keep it to myself it would end up destroying our friendship anyway.”

Jaebeom is staring at Jinyoung, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Jinyoung looks up, to find Jaebeom’s look of shock. He notices Jinyoung about to say something so he stops trying to think and just functions on instinct, “Wait,” Jinyoung flinches slightly, not expecting Jaebeom to say anything with how shocked he looked.

Jaebeom takes a deep breath, “Wait, before you go and say something about me not needing to return the feelings and that you’ll get over it so our friendship won’t have to change, let me say my piece first.” Both of them glance towards the door before Jaebeom continues, “I’m in love with you and have been for the past three years according to Brian-hyung and I’m just gonna take his word for it. I had a crisis on his apartment floor two weeks ago when I realized. I’m pretty sure I made him and Dowoon really mad with me just lying on the floor and countering everything they said with a question about what if it ruins our relationship.” He pauses for a brief moment, “Actually I know I pissed Dowoon off with how I cherry picked which advice I took and which I didn’t.”

Jinyoung drops his head into his hands, empty laughter echoing through the store, “We’re just a couple of idiots, aren’t we? They were all right.”

Jaebeom chuckles, “Would you call this our first date?”

Jinyoung looks up with a hum, “Not quite,” he leans in, dropping a kiss on Jaebeom’s cheek, “Now it’s a first date.”

Before Jinyoung can draw too far back, Jaebeom puts a hand on Jinyoung’s neck, just below his right ear, and pulls him in for a kiss. When they pull back to breathe, Jaebeom smirks, “I’d say unknowingly dating for two years warrants more than a cheek kiss.”

It’s as they sit there, Jaebeom still cupping Jinyoung’s face as they are looking into each other’s eyes (the love Jinyoung has for him is glaringly obvious now that he knows to look for it), that the bell on the door rings.

“Alright, I’m ba-,” Wonpil freezes. Jaebeom’s hand slides from Jinyoung’s neck to hold his hand instead. “You better not have been neglecting customers while I was gone,” he says, narrowing his eyes.

“We absolutely were not,” Jaebeom declares with a smile, “but I have to go get ready for my 2 pm appointment.” He stands, dropping a kiss on Jinyoung’s cheek before smiling at Wonpil’s look of utter shock as he heads back for YoungSoul.

The first step he takes in has all four other employees staring at him. “Could Wonpil not have waited the minute it takes to walk back here?”

Bambam shrieks in excitement and Jaebeom sees Brian and Dowoon letting out sighs of relief before Bambam tackles him.

(Wonpil pulls the security tapes and storms over to YoungSoul the next day. As soon as Jaebeom sees the tapes in his hand he makes an excuse to escape.

Jinyoung looks up at the bell and is not surprised to see Jaebeom.

“Wonpil forgot about the tapes yesterday and that was the first thing he did this morning,” Jinyoung smiles, “I’m surprised he made it this long before storming over there.”

Jaebeom simply smiles, kisses Jinyoung and hangs out until Dowoon calls him about the arrival of his next appointment.

“I’ll come back when I know Wonpil is back here with that security tape.”

Wonpil walks in with the security tape and a pout less than a minute later. Jaebeom sticks his tongue out teasingly, revealing a tongue piercing Jinyoung didn’t know about.

“Bam did it yesterday,” he explains on his way out, “They take about six weeks to heal but in my defense, I didn’t know you were going to confess yesterday.”)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so three chapters in one day because it's called i wrote 8K+ words in 48 hours and surprised myself with how quickly i could get this written but when that inspiration train hits you ride that into the ground
> 
> next is probably gonna be wonpil and sungjin even though i really want to get to more stray kids i can't yet but they will be soon (maybe, i'm taking a summer class and i don't remember when it starts plus i think my summer work is going to start soon)


End file.
